Harvard Sophomore Writes Hollywood Novel

At 19, Isabel Kaplan is starting her sophomore year at Harvard. Add the fact that her first novel, Hancock Park (HarperTeen), came out this summer, and now I’m really feeling like a slacker.

Despite my pangs of jealousy, she totally won me over with this interview. Meet Isabel:

I Heart Daily: Have you always been a writer?Isabel Kaplan: I wrote my first short story when I was seven. It was a sort of retelling of Tom Sawyer (which I suppose I must have read around the same time) — except, in my story, all of the characters were female.

IHD: Cool! So what was the inspiration for Hancock Park?IK: Growing up in Los Angeles was my primary inspiration. I wanted to write a novel exploring adolescence within the unique and sometimes crazy world of Hollywood.